From left, Marc Freedman and Phyllis Segal of Civic Ventures and Sibyl Jacobson of MetLife Foundation at the National Press Club.

Some people want an encore career that combines combine income with personal meaning and also contributes to society. Others think that’s a pipe dream, and that simply making ends meet is going to be a challenge. And still others at the end of their midlife careers want nothing to do with work at all.

The Internet is abuzz with reactions to the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Career Survey, which found that an estimated 6 percent to 9.5 percent of Americans ages 44 to 70 are already working in encore careers. The survey also found that, among those people not already in encore careers, 50 percent said they want to have one.

In other words, more than half of our nation’s 80 million baby boomers are using or want to use their talents to improve society by working in fields such as education, public service, health care and the nonprofit sector.

To see some of the media coverage of the survey, click here.

USA Today polled readers on the type of encore career that appealed most to them. As of this morning, 855 people had voted, with the most popular choice being teaching (32 percent), followed by environmental projects (26 percent), building and development (16 percent), and health care and social work, which each received 13 percent of the votes.

Among the 55 comments posted with the USA Today article are several from readers who are already in encore careers. L Whitney wrote, “I taught high school English for 35 years. I now work part time for a Marriage and Family Therapist as a Life Skills Coach.” Dbest, age 57, wrote, “I have been teaching for over 7-1/2 years now. I had been in the ‘business’ field up to then. The satisfaction and joy of teaching has far outweighed my ‘business’ career.”

Madd Maxx said, “I made the change and I’m glad I did. Pays better too.” Princess of Mars wrote, “I left the newspaper business – 30 years at a large city daily – to work as a music therapist! I wake up happy every day and the blessing from working with hospice patients is overwhelming!”

There also are comments from people less convinced that a fundamental change is in the works. Wild weird stuff wrote, “Bravo for those that are in a position to take a job for altruistic reasons, but for most of us, we’re just trying to stay afloat knowing full well that there will be not retirement for us in the foreseeable future.” Stryke 1 wrote, “Boomers are neither quitting their jobs nor coming out of retirement, they are being downsized, discarded and victims of age discrimination for the most part and having to struggle to find something else to keep them afloat. That is the real story.”

Marci Alboher’s “Shifting Careers” blog in The New York TimesThe New York Times prompted 53 comments by this morning, many of which described the struggles of changing careers later in life.

A reader named Myth wrote, “If one does not have experience in these fields, even if one has considerable professional experience in another field, they always want you to start at the bottom. I’ve looked. They’ll let you mop the floors for minimum wage but that’s about it. It’s a myth that such organizations are just waiting to bring you in at a professional level.”

S.R. wrote, “I am at the end of the baby boomer range, and have been trying to make a career change over the past 2 years. I am certainly not ready to “retire” in the traditional sense, and have found that it is very difficult making a transition to a new career at this age. Most places in a new career field feel I have TOO MUCH experience to start at the bottom.”

David D commented, “Break out the violins. Here’s my story. In 2003 at the age of fifty I was downsized out of my IT position at a major Wall St. firm (hint: the CEO and COB of this firm resigned last October after presiding over a 9 billion dollar loss, yet he was allowed to exercise his stock options to the tune of 140 million). It took me 3 years before I could find a comparable full time job. But not before I expended my retirement savings fund. I would love to have the luxury of finding meaningful work but I have to focus on work that improves my bottom line before I reach 65.”

Mary Ann fits into a well-documented category of nearly retired who need a break. “I’m day one into retirement,” she wrote. “Please don’t talk to me about work. I want to sleep in, read mountains of books, travel, walk my dog, drink beer with my husband, and generally, smell the roses. I don’t want to do anything that requires structure or deadlines. Ugh.”

Walter told of retiring from a large utility company at age 55 and doing adjunct teaching at a prominent university, then being invited to teach full time as well as overseas. “Working with students two generations later in many different countries has been a marvelous anti-aging compound! … I urge anyone with a background in a subject that is taught at any level from grade school to post-graduate to think about teaching in the second half of life.”

On MarketWatch.com, there were 34 comments as of this morning. “I was concerned when I ‘downshifted,’ but not concerned now,” wrote oldbill.

Jojo99 commented, “I think the government should provide some sort of re-training options, covering minimal living expenses, perhaps in a dorm environment, for those who are older, say over 50, while they learn new skills of choice. I know there are a lot of holes to fall into with this idea but the alternative is a huge number of dissatisfied people working at menial jobs (if working at all) just to get by. That isn’t a recipe for overall economic success for the country as a whole.”

MPython wrote, “It is possible to have a great encore career, but as with most things in life there is compromise and give and take. We had to do an extra move and real estate buy/sell. However, the net impact on both our finances and psyches was very positive.”

What do you think? Are you ready for an encore career that combines income with personal meaning and social purpose?